A recent post over on the Android Developers Blog from Dave Burke, VP of Engineering, discusses the changes in full, adding that this year’s preview has been released ‘really early’.

This beta build of Android N will allow Google to grab some more developer feedback before the update is released in full, with Burke confirming the final Android N release will reach device makers this summer.

There are some rather note-worthy additions to this latest build including Multi-window, allowing activities to be launched in split-screen modes on smartphones and tablets. The blog posts adds that activities can go picture-in-picture mode on TV’s, which is a ‘great feature for apps that play video’.

Direct reply notifications have also been added, meaning Android users can reply to incoming message notifications quickly without leaving the notification shade. On top of that, bundled notifications can group notifications from the same app together. Grouped notifications can be expanded too.

In a move that’ll have plenty of heavy smartphone users satisfied, there have apparently been a number of changes to Android N implemented aiming to improve battery life and performance. In Android N, the Doze feature additionally saves battery whenever the screen turns off.

Burke adds:

“We’re continuing to invest in Project Svelte, an effort to reduce the memory needs of Android so that it can run on a much broader range of devices, in N by making background work more efficient.”

There’s still a long wait ahead before Android N is released in full, but these latest changes discussed on the developer’s blog give us some high hopes for the evolution of Android.

After three years studying at the University of Winchester, Tom graduated with a journalism degree under his belt. A couple of work placements out in the real world at PC Advisor and the BBC taught him that journalism is pretty fun, and a couple of months later he joined the team at Phonecruncher, then signing up with TalkAndroid. Tom would be the first to admit he spends far too much time worrying about Arsenal FC results and watching strange videos on YouTube.